420mn yen robbed in Tokyo; similar assault follows
TOKYO -- A group of Japanese and Chinese people were robbed of an estimated 423 million yen in Tokyo on Thursday night, quickly followed by an assault on a different group also carrying a lot of cash.
Metropolitan Police Department investigators examine the scene of robbery in Tokyo's Taito Ward on January 29, 2026. Photo: Jiji Press
Both groups said they were trying to take the money to China, according to sources.
Police are investigating whether the two incidents, both of which involved a trio of assailants, were connected.
In the first incident, a group of two Chinese and three Japanese people in their 20s to 40s were attacked with what appeared to be tear gas spray in the Higashiueno district in Taito Ward around 9:30 pm.
The group was robbed of three suitcases believed to contain 423 million yen.
A man who claimed to be the person in charge of the group told the Metropolitan Police Department that their job is to carry Japanese yen to Hong Kong via Tokyo's Haneda Airport and exchange the money for Hong Kong dollars.
"This time again, I asked the five people to carry the money to Haneda," the man was quoted as saying.
Of the three assailants, one was 1.7 meters tall and wore a black jacket and a knit cap.
The three fled in the same vehicle.
Just around the same time, a male passerby was hit and slightly injured by a vehicle on a nearby road.
The vehicle left the scene, but a minivehicle with a license plate registered in Nagano Prefecture was found abandoned on a road 500 meters from the accident site.
Haneda Airport's P5 parking lot in Tokyo's Ota Ward, where an assault incident occurred in the small hours of January 30, 2026. Photo: Jiji Press
The second incident happened around 12:10 am Friday on the third floor of Haneda Airport's P5 parking lot, located next to Terminal 3 of the airport in Ota Ward.
A white vehicle approached a Japanese man in his 50s.
Assailants talked to the man, sprayed what appeared to be tear gas from the vehicle and struck windows of the man's vehicle with a hammer.
The man's vehicle carried three colleagues and two suitcases containing 190 million yen, but the money was not stolen.
The man said his group was trying to go to China with the money.
In both incidents, the three assailants left the scene by vehicle.
Just before the Haneda incident, a man in his 20s nearly had his bag snatched by a man on the same floor.
A white vehicle carrying three men, including the one who tried to steal the bag, left the scene.
One of the three wore dark or black clothes and appeared to be in his 20s or 30s.
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